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18 Feb 2015

Lent Message 2015 - Bishop Brendan Leahy

At this time of year, we ask each
other: “what are you giving up for Lent?” Replies vary with people mentioning
drink or chocolates etc. A little penance is never a bad thing. But there’s another aspect to Lent – we need
to ask ourselves: “what am I doing
for Lent?” in the sense of taking some step in my personal life that will lead
me to a deeper relationship with God and with others around me.

I’ve been struck by Pope Francis’
message for Lent. He reminds us that God is interested in each of us. God’s love does not
allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. But it’s easy for us to slip
into an indifference at several levels – about God, about others, about
ourselves. Pope Francis speaks about “a globalization of indifference” in our
world today. It is “a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.”

Lent is the annual season for us
to check out those areas of my personal or social life about which I/we have
become indifferent. As Francis puts it, “Indifference to our neighbour and to
God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent
we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our
conscience.” Pope Francis himself is such a prophet calling us to wake up from
indifference this Lent.

Take charities, for instance.
There has been so much controversy about how some charities are run that,
without realising it, we might all have become a little more indifferent to
charities. Why not consider giving more to charities this Lent? The Catholic
Church’s agency, Trócaire, is well worth supporting but there are many others
too. The important thing is not to be indifferent to the needs expressed
through those charities.

Indifference doesn’t just apply
to charities. We can get so used to hearing about the problems in the Middle
East that we switch off in an indifference to the issue of peace and the plight
of Christians in that part of the world.

When ethical debates begin around
us, there’s a temptation to become indifferent to searching for what is true
and right. We need to actively inform ourselves about what the Church teaches
about such issues.

Because of the failures within
the Church, we can, understandably perhaps, become indifferent to the Catholic
Church, its teaching and sacraments. And yet, the Church itself has so much to
offer us. This Lent why not let ourselves be moved more by the love of Christ
reaching us through the life of the Church.

Issues relating to abuse of drink
and drugs have become so prevalent that we shut out the issues and ignore them.
And yet we know the havoc they wreak in society. None of us can afford to say I
can do nothing to help.

I am asking myself this Lent about
my indifference to the plight of migrants and asylum seekers resident in our
diocese. They are Christ knocking at the door of our hearts, waiting to be
welcomed above all as human beings worthy of dignity and respect.

There are also very personal
forms of indifference that can affect any of us - perhaps a family row or a
stand-off with a person in work or a hurt I received in some organisation that
caused me to distance myself from others. Sometimes, these situations can go on
for so long that we grow indifferent to them. It’s easy to say “why bother
trying to do something to remedy the tension?” But when I find myself thinking
that, it’s a sign that the dust of indifference has settled in my heart.

So, this Lent, as well as asking
“what are you giving up for Lent?”, let’s ask ourselves: in what way have I become
indifferent and withdrawn into myself? In what way have I or my family, my
parish or organisation become self-sufficient and forgetful of others? And
decide to actively do something to wake myself up out of indifference.

Quoting Pope Benedict, Pope
Francis speaks about Lent as a time for engaging in formation of the heart:
“Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart,
closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart that lets itself be pierced by
the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and
sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and
gives itself freely for others.”

The season of Lent will occur
twice during our preparations for the Diocesan Synod. Since conversion –
personal, ministerial and ecclesial – is at the heart of the Synod, these
occasions for renewal are particularly important. Entrusting the weeks ahead to
Mary our mother, let’s ask for a special grace of deep conversion as we begin
Lent.

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Prayer before reading and reflecting on Scripture

Lord, we thank you for putting us in the presence of your Word which you inspired in your prophets. May we approach this Word reverently, humbly and attentively. May we not despise this Word, but receive all it has to say to us. We know that our hearts are closed, often incapable of comprehending the simplicity of your Word. Send your Spirit to us so that receiving the Word in truth and simplicity, our lives may be transformed by it.
Let us not be resistant, Lord; may your Word penetrate us like a two edged sword; may our hearts be open to it; let not our eyes be closed, nor our minds wander, but may we give ourselves entirely to this listening. We ask this Father, in union with Mary who used to recite the psalms, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

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